The Newcomer
by Blackrose715378
Summary: I'm finally done!
1. Woody

DISCLAIMER: Wow, I really don't see the point of disclaimers if we're not making money off this site, but I have to, so the only thing I own in this story-thingy is Abigail. If you would like to borrow her, go ahead. I don't own Max Steel and everything else, some corporations do. Anyway, ahead to Chapter 1.  
  
Chapter 1: A New Face  
  
Team Steel was in the briefing room at N'Tek headquarters. Kat, Berto, and Max sat at a polished wood table, while Jefferson Smith stood at the head of the room, trying to hold everyone's attention. That wasn't easy. The subject of the meeting was Woody Barkowski, who had recently broken out of prison. How this was accomplished was a mystery to everyone, because to put it quite plainly, Woody was a moron. Not even Smith could concentrate on what he was saying, but it had to be done. However, Smith was saved from falling asleep on the spot when a skinny redheaded girl knocked timidly on the door.  
"Ah, Abigail!" Smith exclaimed, happy for a distraction, "Come on in. Meet Team Steel. From left to right it's Max, Kat, and Berto. Max and Kat are field agents, and Berto works here at N'Tek." He didn't mention Josh, or the type of research Berto was involved in. Newcomers were usually kept pretty much out of the loop until it was sure they could be trusted. To the three teens in front of him he said, "Guys, this is Abigail Nicholson. She'll be interning here for a while. Today is her fifth day here."  
The girl walked slowly towards the front of the room and stopped three feet from the man. Max, Kat, and Berto studied her with curiosity. Usually when someone new arrived at N'Tek, everyone knew within a day or so.  
"You've been here five days and we've never seen you before. That's um...unusual," Kat noted, staring at the girl.  
Abigail, staring down at her feet mumbled something that sounded like "I'm quiet".  
"Well, I don't want to keep you from your work any longer. Was there something you needed?"  
Abigail looked up from her brown shoes. "I was supposed to give you this," she said, handing him a small yellow piece of paper. Turning to leave the room, she knocked a stack of papers off the table, and then, blushing furiously, strode quickly out the door.  
Smith picked up the papers from the floor before reading the memo and rolling his eyes. "It's as if he likes prison," he muttered.  
"Woody?" Max groaned.  
"Yep. All right, you three, there's been suspicious lightning storms appearing out of nowhere all over the city. You know what to do. And Max?"  
"Yeah, Dad?"  
"Try to keep this Hawk intact, all right?"  
Max smiled and rolled his eyes at Smith before following Kat and Berto out the door. Woody was known for using "his wrath" to conjure up lightning storms. In his eyes he was a criminal mastermind. To Team Steel he was an annoyance.  
Once in the hall, Kat and Max turned right and went to the hangar, and Berto went left to the control room where he would watch the scene via Max's biolink. Berto entered the room, and sat down on a swivel chair in front of a large screen roughly the size of those at the movies. A robotic dog greeted him.  
"Sit," Berto commanded. The robo-dog spun it's head around twice, barked, and then sat down next to the chair. "Good boy," Berto said. Even one command was progress, seeing as Berto the super genius in nanotechnology, could not seem to make robotic animals do anything but spontaneously combust.  
  
Well, I know this chapter was pretty short, but I'm working on another one right now. It's my first one, so give me suggestions. If you don't like it, tell me it sucks. If you do, it would be nice to hear that too.  
-Blackrose 


	2. Feedback MessUp

Well, I got a (a as in one) review for the last chapter, and I don't think anyone really cares about this story, but I am thinking of not publishing the next chapter until I get one more review. One more-that could mean you, whoever is reading this could click the little submit review button on the bottom of the screen, and the next chapter would come out soon after. Whatever. This chapter's a little bit longer, as my one review suggested. Now, I will stop my babbling so you can read this chapter.  
  
Chapter 2  
Max and Kat flew off in Hawk heading towards the middle of the city. It wasn't very hard to find Woody; they just followed the blackened clouds across the sky. When they found him, the self-proclaimed evil genius was standing on a rooftop, cackling, and shooting lightning bolts into an abandoned building next to the one on which he was standing. Kat put Hawk into stealth mode and flew over the building, letting Max easily jump out onto the rooftop, landing quietly behind Woody.  
"Okay, Woody, ready to go back to jail?"  
"Ah! My nemesis, Max Steel! It was an insult being placed in a regular prison. See how easily I broke out? Ha, now I'm back! I'm your worst nightmare!"  
With that, he turned and aimed a bolt of electricity Max's way, which the agent dodged by diving away from the bolt.  
"My worst nightmare? More like comic relief. Come on Woody, just come quietly this time, we'll put you in a high security prison. Would that make you happy?"  
"Never!"  
  
Back at N'Tek, Berto was sitting at the monitor watching Woody when a voice crackled over his communicator.  
"Martinez, pilot Hawk for me, Max looks like he's going to need some help on this one."  
"Ok, but he looks like he's doing fine on his own."  
"Yeah, maybe if he's not planning to bring Woody in until next week. He can't get at him. He needs another person there to mix Woody up."  
"All right, I've got Hawk."  
Berto switched over to Hawk's monitor and landed the craft on the roof in stealth mode behind Woody. Then, switching back to Max's monitor, he watched as Kat silently climbed out and crept towards Max's opposer. Max, seeing Kat, distracted Woody while the female agent grabbed a loose brick from the roof of the building and, taking up a pitcher's pose, hurled the projectile at the annoyance's head, squarely hitting her mark. Berto watched as Woody went down.  
"Good work, hermano. The police are in front of the building. They can handle him now."  
"Good. Um...where's Hawk?"  
"Stealth mode. Hold on." Berto pressed a button and Hawk appeared on the rooftop near Kat, seemingly materializing out of thin air.  
"Thanks, bro. See ya back at base."  
Hearing the door open, Berto looked over to see the girl from the briefing standing in the doorway holding a heavy book of some sort. "Hi, Abigail," said Berto, "what's up?"  
Abigail stared at the monitor in front of the older agent, and the many buttons and switches in front of him on the console.  
"You interested in this stuff?" Berto asked, following her gaze.  
The girl nodded her head.  
"Really?" Berto had recently been looking for someone to help him out in the lab a little. Max and Kat were better with the physical end of the job, and usually ending up breaking something whenever they attempted to help Berto out. "Interested in helping me out a little?" he asked hopefully.  
For the first time since entering the room, the girl looked up and nodded vigorously. Berto felt a form of companionship towards her. He too had been painfully quiet when first arriving at N'Tek. The new building, new faces, and all the advanced equipment had him amazed.  
"Here," he said, getting up from his swivel chair, "you can watch the monitors while I go down the hall for a few minutes. You can sit here. Just watch and make sure that Max doesn't crash the Hawk on the way back."  
The girl walked over and sat down, staring up at the monitor. "Where's Max?" she asked.  
"Max? He's..."Berto stopped and stared at the girl for a minute. She'd been here a week already, and he certainly did like her well enough, but there was something about her that stopped him from telling her the truth about Max just yet. Berto assumed he might be being a little paranoid, but working at N'Tek the past few years had taught him to trust his instincts. "Max is wearing a helmet with a camera attached to it," he lied, "so, you're seeing what Max is seeing right now. You won't see Max unless he's looking in a mirror or something."  
"Or if you take off the camera."  
"What?"  
"If Max took off the camera and pointed it at himself, he would show up on the monitor." It was the most Berto had heard the girl speak.  
"Um, right. Yeah. I'll be right back. If you need anything, call."  
With that, Berto exited the room and walked towards a door at the end of the hall, where he kept most of his supplies when they weren't in use. Opening the door, he looked to the corner to see Spot XV against the far wall. Berto walked towards the metallic canine and knelt down besides it. "Spot, on," he commanded. The dog's eyes opened, and it jumped stiffly to its feet, barked, and sat down.  
  
Max was landing Hawk back at N'Tek as deafening static suddenly exploded in his ears. He yelled in pain and Hawk dropped abruptly onto the floor of the hangar, breaking one of its landing wheels. The aircraft sat lopsided in the large building. Kat jumped out and hurried over to Max.  
"Steel, what's wrong?" she asked urgently.  
Max, unable to say anything just groaned and put his hands to his ears. Kat, now very worried, paged Berto on his communicator.  
"Martinez, something's wrong with Max!" she yelled.  
"What do you mean? Where are you?"  
"We're in the hangar, shouldn't you know that?"  
"No, I'm not at the console right now, what's wrong with Max?!"  
"I don't know, he's just sitting there moaning and clutching his ears, why aren't you at the console?!"  
"I'm on my way now. I left Abigail to monitor it, I was getting something from the equipment room," Berto said as he ran down the hallway towards his lab. He burst through the door to see Abigail staring intently at the screen, with an odd look on her face. Max's pained voice emanated from the speakers. Hearing Berto come through the door, she jumped up from the chair.  
"Berto, I don't know what happened; he just started yelling all of the sudden!"  
Berto brushed past her and sat back down at his normal seat.  
"Hermano, what's wrong?"  
"The---damn biolink feedback---turn it off, bro!"  
Berto, glanced over at the bio-feedback button and saw a heavy algebra book right on top of the button Berto quickly reached over and picked it up.  
"Better?" the younger agent asked.  
"Yeah, I'm on my way up now," Max said, rubbing his ears, "there better be a really good explanation for this."  
Turning around on the chair, Berto came to look at Abigail. She stood there calmly, not seeming to realize what she had just done.  
"What happened?" Berto said, forcing himself to be calm as well.  
"I was just sitting at the counsel, and I put my book down for a second, and then I saw the plane land weirdly and Max started yelling." The girl's eyes were wide, and she looked so innocent. Berto knew Max was not going to be happy when he got up here.  
"It's ok," he said, "I'll cover for you. Everyone makes mistakes, but you better get out of here before Max shows up."  
The girl nodded, looking grateful, and quickly exited the room, turning left, seconds before Berto heard Max and Kat coming from the right.  
  
"Bro? Explanation. Now."  
Berto was right. Max was definitely not happy.  
"Um-good news," Berto said lamely, "the bio-feedback button works." 


	3. Buttons

Hey, I'm dropping the review-or-I'm-not-outting-out-the-next-chapter-thing because it sounds kinda bitchy. Oh well, anyway, thank you Akili-Chan and UKHoneyB for reviewing this story. You rock! I hope I got the names right.  
  
Chapter 3 (A week after chapter 2)  
Abigail sat at the console, directing Max through one of N'Tek's training programs that tested how well teams worked together. Berto stood directly behind the girl. A glass box had been built over the bio-feedback button so the button could only be pushed once someone opened the box. This was the button couldn't be accidentally pressed. Berto had told Max that what had happened the week before was due to a short circuit, and Abigail's name had not been mentioned at all. Kat, however, was not so easily convinced of the girl's innocence. The night of the incident, she had come to Berto when he was alone in the lab and Max had gone home.  
"What really happened today?" she had asked him.  
"Exactly what I said happened, there was a short circuit in the wire connecting to the bio-feedback button...why?"  
"Berto, you're not a very good liar," she said, pulling up another swivel chair.  
"What makes you think I'm lying?"  
"Well, I noticed that when I talked to you before, you had said that Abigail was at the console and that you were down the hall. You wouldn't have left out that little piece of information unless there was some reason for it."  
"Ok, fine. Just don't tell Max."  
Kat whistled. She knew it wasn't very often that Berto kept secrets from his best friend. "I won't," she had promised.  
"I was at the console, and when you guys were flying back, Abigail came in, and it turns out she's interested in this stuff," he had said, gesturing at the console, "anyway, I had some stuff to do, so I let her sit there and watch the monitor, figuring you guys didn't really need me at the minute. I was in the supply room when you called me. When I got back to the console, I saw that Abigail had..."  
Kat looked at him expectedly.  
"Accidentally," Berto strongly emphasized the word, "put her book on top of the bio-feedback button."  
"Well, how come she didn't run and get you when Max started yelling? That's what she should've done."  
Berto looked puzzled. "I guess she panicked and wasn't really thinking clearly at the time." He suddenly recalled that odd look on her face as she was watching the screen and listening to Max moaning. He quickly pushed the image out of his mind. She was just confused, he told himself.  
Kat looked suspicious. "There's something weird about her, Berto. When she said she had already been here for almost a week already and I didn't know about it, my alarm bells went off."  
"She said she's very quiet..."  
"Berto, you know nothing gets past me in this building. Nothing."  
The younger agent had to agree with her. Kat had an uncanny way of never being taken by surprise at N'Tek.  
"Berto, I'll keep your promise and not tell Max about what really happened, but you have to promise me something too."  
"Sure."  
"Don't leave Abigail alone at the console again. At least until I figure out why I have such a weird feeling about her. Promise me that."  
Berto nodded. "I promise."  
Remembering the conversation, Berto now dismissed Kat's reaction to Abigail. He figured that Kat was probably just put off because she was no longer the only female agent on the team. Abigail's voice brought him back to the present moment.  
"What do I do now, Berto?"  
Berto had been teaching the girl how to work all the buttons and switches on the console. She was a quick learner, and a big help to him. She now also knew all about Max. At the moment Berto could see that this part of the training program was written for speed. Max could go turbo and run, but it was a waste of T-juice, and he could not run fast enough in normal mode. Berto pointed to a black button with a blue letter S on it.  
"Press that button," he directed.  
Abigail pressed the button and a joy stick came out of a panel in the console. The screen switched to a view from Shadow's windshield. Shadow, Max Steel's car, was currently in the garage at N'Tek.  
"Use the joystick to direct Shadow to Max. Press the red button on top to make the car speed up, and take it off to make the car stop."  
The girl tested the joystick out, watching the view change as Shadow faced the wall of the garage, and then the door. Then she carefully guided it out the door.  
"Good job," said Berto, excited at how quickly she was able to understand things. "Now, that is where Max is," he said, pointing to a green blinking dot on another screen. "The red dot in the corner is where shadow is at the moment. Your job is to guide Shadow to Max, and avoid running people over."  
Berto watched as Abigail guided Shadow to Max with shocking precision, not damaging so much as a mailbox on the side of the road.  
"Nice work, Abby," Max Steel said. Not knowing that Abby was the true cause of the bio-feedback conflict last week, he had grown to liking Abigail, and called her Abby. Kat was the only member of Team Steel who hadn't seemed to have warmed up to the newest agent just yet. True to his word, Berto didn't leave Abigail alone at the console, but he was having more and more confidence in her as the days went by. Abby and Max finished the fake mission in seventeen minutes and three seconds, almost, but not quite, beating Berto's time of sixteen minutes flat. Berto laughed to himself. Kat was acting silly. If anyone should be feeling threatened by the newcomer, it should be him. Abigail, though skilled in computers, would most likely never become a field agent.  
  
Later the next day, Berto and Abigail were working on Berto's mechanical dog, and had actually made progress. The dog now listened to six commands, although these were accompanied by odd patterns of head-spinning and barks. It was Abigail's idea to make a remote control, because voice commands sometimes didn't register clearly enough. It was also her idea to put an emergency self-destruct button on the controller.  
"Why would we want Fido to self-destruct?" Berto asked, puzzled. "Usually he gets around to doing that on his own," he recalled the last fourteen models blowing themselves to bits and leaving scorch-marks on the floor tiles.  
"Well, this one is a bit different from the other models. It's more advanced. We gave it so many commands that it might, well, overload and go crazy at some point. I think it would be safe to add a self-destruct button just in case something happened, and we couldn't stop it."  
Berto hesitated, but he did see the logic in the girl's thinking. He let Abigail add the self-destruct button to the remote. 


	4. Fido

_Ok, I'm getting some feedback! Woohoo! Now, to address it:_

_Akili-Chan: I'm glad you like my writing, it means a lot._

_UKHoneyB: Thanks to you too. I can't email you, so I will reply here. I will try not to rush into the action, I wanted to make sure my readers didn't get bored, and I guess I over did it. Thank you soooo much for the real name of Berto's dog, and yes, he has had quite a few of them. I will learn to use grammar check, and you will not have to worry about Abigail becoming too Berto-ish. _

Chapter 4 (Two weeks after chapter 3)  
  
Max, Berto, Abigail, and Jefferson Smith found themselves once again in the briefing room, only this time, Abigail was one of the team, and they were all waiting for Kat to arrive. The new member of Team Steel now fit perfectly, having settled her differences with Kat. Though the oldest agent of the team was still a little suspicious of the youngest, Kat was friendly towards the new girl, and the two had even gone out to dinner the night before. Though a little put off by Kat's failure to call and say she would be coming in late, or not at all, no one was really worried. Kat had been injured a month ago, and at least two or three times a month, she would decide not to come in.  
The subject of the morning's meeting was Abigail. Jefferson was about to announce that she was now officially a permanent member of Team Steel. He began to speak.  
"Abigail, I've been observing your progress over the last few weeks, and I've decided that..." the man stopped as a buzzing sound started coming from his left pocket. Puzzled, he reached into the pocket and pulled out his beeper. The number was Rachel's office line. "I'm sorry," Smith apologized to the group, "I just have to see what this is." He went into the hallway, closing the door behind him, and started to dial Rachel's number on his cell phone.  
"What'd you think's going on?" Max wondered, "Dad doesn't usually use his cell phone inside the building."  
"Who knows, in our line of work, could be anything," was Berto's reply, accompanied by a shrug.  
Abigail remained silent, gazing intently at the ceiling. Berto noticed that now-familiar odd look of hers.  
A few minutes after he had stepped out, Smith reentered the room, with a grim look on his face.  
"Dad, what's wrong?" Max asked, standing up.  
"Team Steel, we have a situation. Follow me."  
  
The situation was worse than any of them were expecting. Upon reaching Rachel's office, they heard a familiar drawling voice.  
"Dread," Max snarled.  
Everyone knew the villain was not really in the office, but the voice alone was enough to make everyone uneasy. When they walked in, they saw an image of Dread's face, frozen on a large projection screen.  
"This is a message I received five minutes ago," started a British- accented woman's voice to the right of the doorway. Rachel was sitting at her desk, across from the screen, holding what looked like a remote control in her hand. The look on her face matched Smith's.  
"You three better sit down for this," Smith told his surrogate son and two partners. The three did what they were told, but hesitantly. They all wanted to know what was going on, and why both Rachel and Jefferson were acting so weird. Rachel pressed a button on the remote control and Dread's face began to speak in a calm voice.  
"Hello, all my friends at N'Tek," Dread began, "long time no see. Now, since I know none of you, Mr. Steel especially, is very fond of small talk, I think I'll get right to the point. I have recently become interested in the oil business. Today I am planning to travel to the Middle East and take over a few businesses. I tell you this because I will have to deal with a few of the owners of these businesses in a slightly unethical fashion. I do not want N'Tek interfering with these plans. To assure I will be left to pursue my new interest unbothered, I have taken out a little insurance policy. She will be safe unless my efforts are interrupted, or there is any attempt to retrieve her. Don't worry, Mr. Steel, your partner is safe with me."  
With that, the man's face froze on the screen, having reached the end of its message. Rachel pressed another button the remote control, and the screen went black.  
"That," she said, "is our situation."  
  
Five minutes later, Max was in Shadow, heading towards Dread's base, or at least where he was pretty sure Dread's base was. Berto had confirmed that the building was where the broadcast had come from. They both knew it was too easy. They both knew it was a trap. They both knew that Max was going to go anyway. The younger agent had just finished checking Max's levels, when Abigail entered the room, the robotic dog not far behind her. Abigail stood next to Berto, and the dog jumped onto his lap. Berto took his eyes off the screen for a second to look down at the dog. Surprised, he turned to face Abigail, who was not next to him anymore, but at the far corner of the lab.  
"Did you teach him..." The tech's voice trailed off as he saw what Abigail was holding. The remote control. The girl smiled at Berto.  
"Bye bye," she said, and pressed the self-destruct button.  
  
Hearing a loud boom, Max winced.  
"Bro, are you okay?" he asked, worriedly. There was no reply. "BRO!" Max called again, this time someone answered, but not the usual accented voice he was used to hearing.  
"Max, it's all right, it's me."  
"Abby? Where's Berto?"  
"Berto was called down to Smith's office."  
"During a mission?"  
"Yeah, something was malfunctioning in maximum security, he had to go fix it," she lied.  
Max thought her reply a bit odd, but he pushed it side for now. He decided that Berto probably hadn't given Abby the real story about what had happened, for one reason or another. Max wasn't worried. He had no reason not to trust her.  
  
At the same time Max left for Dread's base, Rachel Leeds had taken off for Kat's apartment to look around. She didn't expect to find anything that would help her, but she decided nothing could be lost by looking. Upon arriving at her destination, Rachel found that the door to the apartment was locked. She frowned. Was it probable that whoever had taken Kat had locked the door behind them? No, but who's to say she actually made it home. Maybe she was abducted somewhere else. Knowing the younger agent would understand, Rachel used a small laser to melt the lock, disabling it. She had to use her shoulder to open the door, but it worked on the first try. She paused, listening for sounds of activity...and heard an odd noise coming from the bathroom.  
"Who's there?" she called.  
"Rachel?" a weak voice came from the bathroom.  
"Kat?!" Rachel was shocked.  
"Hold on, I'll be right out."  
Rachel grabbed for a chair and sat down, shocked. A few seconds later Kat emerged from the bathroom, looking pale.  
"Kat, what's wrong with you?"  
  
"I don't know. I woke up and haven't been able to stop puking since. I have a strong stomach, that burger must've been bad..." she stopped at the look on Rachel's face. "What? What's wrong?"  
"You went out to dinner with Abigail last night, didn't you?"  
  
Max arrived at the base with some help from Abigail.  
"You must be really good at reading that GPS map." Max said, "You're directions are even better then some of Berto's."  
"I'm a quick learner," the girl replied. "Now, you should probably put Shadow in stealth mode to hide it, just in case."  
"Exactly what I was thinking," Max said as he pushed a white button to his left. Looking down, he noticed nothing had changed. "Hey, why isn't Stealth working?"  
  
"Oh, Berto and I did some alterations before. Stealth is now the red button, on your right."  
"Why'd you change the buttons around, everything was working fine." Max pressed the red button. He heard a high whirring sound, and knew he was in trouble. Then, he blacked out.  
"That's why."  
  
That one might have been a little predictable, I don't know. Tell me what you think. 


	5. Abigail

Chapter 5  
Abigail smirked, and picked up her cell phone, tossing her long red hair over her shoulder. As she dialed the phone, she looked down at Berto's motionless body on the floor. She almost felt bad; he had been nice to her, but then again, so had her employer. The phone rang twice before a man picked up.  
"John Dread here."  
"John it's me."  
"Abigail dear, it's nice to hear your voice again. I trust everything went as planned?"  
"Of course."  
"Good. I'll meet you at base as soon as I get everything wrapped up over here."  
"Understood."  
"See you soon." Abigail hung up the phone and exited the building, walking through the halls with her head down, still playing the part of the nervous intern. When finally she made it to her car, she sighed with relief. So, she thought as she laughed to herself, those three years of acting school Grandfather insisted on were actually worth something. She smiled. Her grandfather was a smart man. He had never let her down.  
Driving to the house she had rented, she went in and changed her clothes. Instead of the skin-tight uniform she had been forced to wear the last few weeks, she changed into black leather pants and along with a blouse of the same color. Instead of the flat-bottom boots she had been wearing, she now put on a pair of black high heels. She took off the glasses she had worn as a prop, and applied black eyeliner and a dark red lipstick. When she was finally done, she stepped back and stared at her reflection, sighing with happiness. She had gone around in her N'Tek uniform, glasses, and no makeup for such a long time to fit the part she had to play. On her N'Tek profile, she had said she was 17, while in reality she was really 23. Now, looking like her 23 year-old self again, she went into the garage and got into her black Mercedes. She had missed the car. While at N'Tek, she had driven a gray Dodge Camry instead of her beloved Mercedes.  
On the way out of the garage, she caught a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror. She loved how she looked in her all-black outfit. She had a thing for the color black. For one thing, it looked better with her hair color. For another, it was her Grandfather's favorite color as well. When he had the Mercedes custom-built for her, he had chosen black as the color. He wore black most of the time too.  
Driving into the sun caused her to squint, so she picked up her sunglasses from the seat next to her. They were the same pair as her grandfather had. In fact, she had bought them for him a long time ago. There was a picture of the two of them together with their sunglasses on his desk. To show his granddaughter how much he loved her, John Dread never took the sunglasses off.  
Well, it was suggested that I should've described Abigail better, so I did. I'm putting out another chapter with this one, so this one is short. My computer's been having some problems with its internet connection though, so sometimes things take a while to kick in. Did I do better on the grammar this time? Not one of my best subjects. Feedback welcome, as always. 


	6. Fred Erickson

I do have a disclaimer in the beginning of the first chapter, but now I also have to say that I do not own the product Diet Coke, although I have several cans in my fridge. They make me happy. I am an insomniac, and am writing this at 3:38 in the morning, so I hope it isn't too bad. Thank God for spell check. And thanks again to my reviewers; it brings me such great joy to get mail. Heehee. Ok, on with the next chapter.  
Chapter 6  
"Hurry up and get it over with, you idiots," Psycho growled as three of Dread's agents worked to extract Max Steel's unconscious form from the car. Although not having as strong effect on him as they did on Max, EMP pulses still made the cyborg cranky. Adding to his bad mood was the fact that Dread's beloved grandchild was going to be staying at the base for the next week. Psycho hated the girl. Dread had given her a job in his organization, which seemed to be "irritate the cyborg". Dread's underling could already hear Abigail's voice in his head. "Come here. Go away. Get me a drink. Get away from my car you can opener." Psycho jumped. That last one had been too real...  
Looking up, he saw Abigail with her arms folded, leaning against her Mercedes, which Psycho had almost walked into, lost in his thoughts. She cast a quick glance at Max, and then strode off towards the building from which Psycho had come. "I'll be in my office," she called over her shoulder, "bring me a Diet Coke...Smiley." With that, she flicked her long hair and disappeared through the huge steel doors guarding the compound.  
Psycho stood staring at the doors for a few seconds, too enraged to do anything. When he finally came to his senses, he turned around and yelled at Max, still lying on the ground where he had been left. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Psycho screamed, kicking the agent in the side.  
  
Rachel and Kat raced towards N'Tek in Rachel's convertible. The older agent concentrated on navigating the streets at 75 MPH while Kat tried frantically to reach Berto on her cell phone. When he didn't pick up on the third try, she tried for Jefferson Smith instead.  
"Hello?" Smith picked up on the second ring. Kat breathed a sigh of relief.  
"Smith, it's Kat, something's wrong, and Berto's not answering at the lab. We can't contact Max either."  
Not one to ask questions in time of crisis, Smith put Kat on hold while he sent Jake Nez and Chuck Marshack down to see why Berto couldn't be contacted. When he got back, he informed Kat that when this was all over, she was expected in his office. Kat groaned as she hung up the phone. "Guess I should've called in, huh?"  
"It would certainly have made things easier, but it's likely that your phone probably wouldn't have worked. I'm surprised your cell phone hasn't been disabled."  
"Huh?"  
"Well, they wouldn't have wanted you to contact us to say you weren't coming in today, because then you would've blown their whole plan."  
"Oh."  
"Anyway, are you feeling any better?"  
"Mostly, but that Abigail bitch better hope that I never see her again."  
  
Max woke to find himself in a cell with concrete walls on three sides and floor bars of steel of steel on the fourth side which Max knew from experience were probably electrically charged.  
"Why does my side hurt so much?" he groaned to himself.  
"That was a little gift," came a voice from outside of the cell.  
Max turned and saw Psycho standing at the bars staring at him with a murderous look. "But I didn't get you anything," Max said.  
"That was for introducing the nickname "Smiley" to Dread's granddaughter," growled Psycho.  
"What are you talking about; I don't know Dread's granddaughter!"  
"No?" a woman's voice came from the back corner of the room, where she had been standing, arms folded. Max gasped as the woman stepped out of the shadows.  
"Abby?!" She looked so different from the N'Tek intern he had worked with.  
"That's right, Steel. Well, thought I'd put in an appearance before retiring to my office. Have fun with Smiley."  
Psycho's claw opened and closed at his side. "I'll cut your hair off in your sleep, you miserable little brat," he muttered.  
Abigail whirled around. "What was that?" She had a deadly look on her face that shocked Max. There was no way this woman was Abby.  
Psycho, seeing the look, stared down at the floor, and said "I'll go get you your soda."  
"Good lawn mower."  
This time he waited until the woman had left the room to explode. He stomped across the room and out the opposite door, and Max heard the sounds of a soda machine being thrown against the wall.  
  
When finally, Rachel slowed to park her car in front of the N'Tek building, Kat jumped over the side, not waiting for the car to stop. Rachel understood her hurry. Both agents were worried about Berto, not always the most capable of defending himself physically. Once inside, Rachel had opted for the elevator, while Kat had taken the emergency stairs. Both reached Team Steel's floor at the same time, and ran down the hall together. When they got to the room Berto usually occupied, there was no one there. The big screen in front of the console was black. Rachel swore. Both Berto and Max were missing. Just then, Jake Nez came rushing through the door.  
"Good, you guys are finally here. Berto's in the med bay, come on."  
"You go, Kat. I'll stay here and try to contact Max."  
Kat hesitated, and then nodded, following Nez out the door, both of them running. Rachel sat down at the console. She knew how to work it reasonably well, but she knew no one was better at it than Berto. She realized that he had been teaching Abigail to use it as well, and had commented at how easily she had taken to it. Rachel wanted to slam her head against the wall. How had they all missed it? How could no one notice that there was something wrong with the new girl? How?! Not the time, Leeds, she told herself. Right now you have to concentrate on finding Max. The first thing Rachel noticed was that the monitor was not actually on. Switching it on, no sound came through, and the only things on the screen were static with the words "signal failure" in red letters. Rachel swore again.  
  
Abigail sat in her comfy leather chair with her feet propped up on the mahogany desk in front of her. She laughed as she read emails from her laptop, on the desk next to her feet. Her acting courses had only been enhancements of her natural skills. Whenever she traveled with her grandfather, she would always scope out the nice-looking guys, and mess with their minds a bit. She had a nice collection of jewelry from them, and they always sent her long, sappy emails confessing their love for her. These were a never-ending source of entertainment for her. She loved exploiting the stupidity of the male race. At that moment, there came a knock on the door. Speaking of exploiting stupidity, she thought to herself with a smirk. "Come in, Toaster." The door opened, and Psycho came in and slammed the can of coke onto the desk. "What's this?" Abigail asked quizzically as she studied the can."  
"It's can of Diet Coke, exactly what you asked for."  
"Why would I for Diet Coke? Do I look like I need to go on a diet to you?" her eyes flashed dangerously. She was in perfect shape, and she knew it.  
"N-no of course not, but I thought you said..."  
"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE, YOU MORONIC TOASTER OVEN!!!" Abigail stood up and screamed at him. The cyborg cowered in fear and ran from the office. As soon as she knew he was out of hearing range, the woman exploded into fits of hysterical laughter. She picked up the can and popped the lid. How she loved tormenting her grandfather's henchmen. Psycho was her favorite object of torment because of his frightening appearance. She loved seeing him shrink away from her in fear. He should be afraid of her. She recalled the one time Psycho had dared question her authority. When she had first started out "working" for her grandfather, Psycho had actually been a normal man, going by the name Fred Erickson. Refusing her orders again and again, he had gotten on her nerves, and their verbal conflicts would shake the building. At the end of one of these arguments, taking place in the weaponry room, he had finally blown his fuse, throwing a punch at her. She had easily ducked it and thrown one of her own. Soon they were both going full out at each other.  
When word of the battle reached John Dread, he had wandered down to the room in which the fight was taking place. He pulled up a chair to watch the action. He did not fear for his granddaughter's well-being. He had trained her himself. Seeing Dread sit down to watch, Abigail waved at him, blew him a kiss while ducking to avoid one of Psycho's high kicks. He nodded his head towards a large sword in a display case on Abigail's right side. She had raised her eyebrows at him, and he had smiled and nodded his approval. Flipping across the floor, she had smashed the glass display case with her foot mid-flip, and had the sword in her hand by the end of the movement. She saw a flicker of fear in her opponent's eyes, but then Fred ran towards a rack on the wall, taking off a hunting rifle. He stood confidently and aimed it at her. She smiled and ran towards him, the sword held over her shoulder.  
When the fight was over, she had stood over Fred's dying body, wiping the bloody sword off with a cloth. "We don't just leave loaded guns lying around on display, you psycho." Placing the sword back in the display case, she went over to her grandfather.  
"You do beautiful work, my dear."  
"I could've beaten him without the sword," she had said, pouting.  
"I know that, but I needed him to end up in the state he is now," he gestured towards the man's mangled body.  
"You wanted me to kill him?" she asked doubtfully.  
"No, no, of course not. I just wanted you to make it so that he could not survive without...extensive work done."  
After weeks of surgery, John Dread had finally been able to put his latest research into use. Fred Erickson was patched up as best as doctors could do, and body parts that could not be saved were replaced with machinery. Technically, Erickson had died four times during the transformation, but at the end he emerged, stronger than he had ever been, because he was now no longer human. Abigail and John Dread had watched most of the process through large glass windows looking into the operation room. On the last day of surgery Dread had turned to his granddaughter and asked what Erickson's new name should be.  
Remembering her words to the man after their battle, she smiled evilly and suggested the two-syllable name that she though most fitting. "Psycho."  
Well, it is now 4:43, yes; this took a long time to write because on top of being an insomniac, I am also a master of procrastination. Sigh, anyway, my internet isn't working right, so I apologize if this takes a day or so to put up. 


	7. Another Button

I've been reading a lot of the other stories on this site, and I noticed that there are a lot of similarities between Abigail and another character, Alice Dread in The More Things Change by Vespera1, so if he/she/it reads this, I didn't mean to make the two so similar, sorry. OK, now on with the story for my two readers, you guys rock!  
Chapter 7  
With some help of chemical stimulants, Berto was awake within ten minutes of arriving in the med bay. He groaned as he sat up; he would need extensive skin graphing on his legs and chest, the main points of contact to the exploding dog. A morphine drip made him woozy, and it took him a few seconds upon his awakening to figure out where he was. Looking around, he saw Kat sitting next to him, staring at the wall across from the bed.  
"Earth to Kat, Earth to Kat," he said weakly.  
The older agent jumped, snapping out of her trance-like state. "Berto! You're awake!"  
"Wished I wasn't." He noticed the panicked look on her face. "What's wrong? What happened? Where's Max?"  
Kat gave him a worried look. "Berto, what's the last thing you remember before now?"  
Berto frowned, recalling the details of the day in his mind. First there had been the meeting with Jefferson, and then he got a phone call, and they had all gone to Rachel's office to...He gasped, the rest of the day coming back in a rush, concluding with the malicious look on Abigail's face as she pressed the button on the remote control. "Kat, how'd you get away from Dread? Is that where Max is?"  
"Dread never had me. I got hit with a nasty bit of food poisoning suspiciously after I had dinner with Abigail, and wasn't in the condition to call in sick. Dread was bluffing...but yeah, that's where Max is."  
Berto groaned again, sinking back into his pillow. "If you say 'I told you so' I will build my next Fido to hunt you for the rest of your life."  
Despite the situation, Kat laughed.  
"I do appreciate you being here with me and all, but shouldn't you be helping Max out?" he asked.  
"Well, that's what Rachel's doing right now; she's trying to contact him via biolink."  
"We all know that won't work. Dread's bases always block the signal."  
"We were also waiting for you to wake up to see if you saw anything that could help us out."  
"The last thing I remember about Max's location, he was on his way to the Dread Base. He just left N'Tek, and was heading Northwest in Shadow."  
"Ok, I'll go tell Rachel that."  
"What are you going to do then?"  
"I think I'm going to test nano-boy's ego and see if he can handle being rescued by a girl."  
"Tell me how that goes."  
  
Max had noticed the tension in the air when both Abigail and Psycho were in the same room. He had also noticed the joys of being locked in a cell. While he couldn't get out, Psycho couldn't get in, either. Using this to his advantage, Max had fun doing whatever he could to annoy his captor.  
"So, Smiley," Max started with an evil grin, "I've noticed how much you love Abigail."  
"You'd hate her too if you had to deal with her calling you 'Lawn Mower' ten times a day. I'm not surprised you two hit it off."  
"That was before I knew who she really was," Max replied darkly. "Anyway, why do you let her bug you so much?"  
The cyborg sighed. "I have to."  
"What, so Dread doesn't fire you?"  
"No, I have to put up with her because of the button."  
"What button?" Max's curiosity was peaked.  
"The one that-"Psycho looked up suddenly, remembering who he was talking to. Furious at the fact he had just had a civil conversation with Max Steel, he got up and jammed his claw through the bars of the cell, extending it towards Max. Max, in turn backed up against the far corner, and could not be reached. With an angry yell, the former Fred Erickson sat back down. Never one to turn down an opportunity to annoy his enemies, Max Steel sat down in the corner and began to whistle. Not any particular tune, just random whistling sounds. "STOP THAT!" Psycho yelled. Max in turn crossed his eyes and began to whistle louder. Unable to reach his quarry, the cyborg removed one of his boots and hurled it through the bars at Max. He missed, and Max grabbed the boot. Waving the boot at Psycho, Max whistled even louder. "DAMN YOU, STEEL!"  
  
Abigail, having just finished her coke, sat in her office, waiting for her grandfather to call. When the call came, she picked up on the first ring.  
"Hi!" she said cheerfully; today had been a good day for her.  
"Hello, Abigail. I'm just about finished up over here, why don't you and Psycho take our friend to H4. I'll meet you there."  
"All right. Bye bye."  
"See you soon."  
Abigail leaned back in her chair, thinking of the most irritating way to greet Psycho this time. She knew how fortunate she was that her grandfather had taken precautions against Erickson's revenge, because with his bionic limb, he might pose a threat to her in hand to hand combat. She flashed back to the day where she had been given control of her father's most-feared henchman.  
She had been watching the surgery with her grandfather, when she saw the lead surgeon do something strange. Abigail watched as the surgeon placed a device the size of a dime next to Erickson's heart inside the latter's chest. Puzzled by this, she turned to her grandfather, who reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a remote-control with only one button on it. Thinking back now, it was the same size as the one she and Berto had built for the mechanical dog.  
"What's that?" she asked.  
"This," he had said, "is a self-destruct button. It activates that device you saw the surgeon just place inside our friend's body. Upon detonation, the device will stop his heart instantly. It would be a painless death, but a death nonetheless."  
"And you're giving this to me...why?" she asked him skeptically.  
"Because, my dear, you are responsible for having him remade into this new, more powerful state. He owes you for improving his life. To make sure he honors that debt, you will have this, which he will know. To go against you now would be suicide."  
The girl's eyes had glowed with the recognition of newfound power, and her grandfather laughed. He was glad she could properly appreciate power. She would have all the power she wanted when she took over the organization.  
Walking down the hallway, she heard sounds of someone begging emanating from the room holding Max Steel. Quickening her step, she hoped for Psycho's sake that he hadn't hurt their captive anymore than what had already been done in the process of transporting him to the cell. Her grandfather had made it clear to the cyborg that he was not to 'damage' the N'Tek agent more than was necessary. As she got closer, the sounds became clearer.  
"Pleeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssseeeeeeee?"  
"Nope."  
"Come on, give it back."  
"Don't think so."  
"I'll get you a soda..."  
"Ok."  
Abigail, now puzzled, stepped quietly through the doorway, standing in the shadows, out of sight. The sight she saw was quite odd. Max Steel lay on his side at the back of his cell, balancing a heavy boot on his index finger, and Psycho was nowhere to be seen. Curious how the scene would play out, Abigail stood and watched as the cyborg came in with a can of soda and rolled it between the bars of the cell. Max popped open the lid and drank some of it. "Thank you."  
"Not can I have my boot back?"  
"Nope."  
Abigail had seen enough. "Bottle-opener, I don't even want to know how your captive managed to commandeer your footwear. It's time to move him anyway, so..." she flicked a switch on the wall, raising the bars of the cell, "you can get your boot back now. I'll be waiting in the truck."  
Max's protection from the cyborg now gone, he meekly offered the boot back as Psycho approached him with his trademark metallic smile on his face.  
  
Ok, maybe Max Steel isn't really acting like he usually does, but I am in a weird mood and I felt like making him behave like a nutjob. More to come, beware. Akili-Chan: I LIKE QUESTIONS! Thank you for your question, lol. Questions give me more to think about and put into the story. Bring on the questions! And for UKHoneyB: I cherished your reaction to how Psycho is treated lol, it made me smile and hug myself. Hahaha, remind me to cut down on the sugar. Anyway....I also enjoyed your comment of "Bwhahahahahahahha". I myself am partial to the "mwhahahahhaha", but "bwhahahhahahah" is great. 


	8. Those Darn EMPs

Ok, I have decide to name my two reviewers instead of addressing the by their aliases all the time. UKHoneyB: I crown you Bwhaha, and Akili-chan; you are now Kwhaha. Mwhahahhahahaha. And I am delighted that both Bwhaha and Kwhaha have decided to write some more! Woohoo! Needless to say, you will be getting feedback from me.  
Chapter 8  
"Rachel, are you sure this is where Max is?"  
"Well, it's where he was going, I don't know if he's actually there."  
"Gee, that's a big help."  
"I'm doing the best I can here! Anyway, what makes you think Max isn't there?"  
"Well, for one thing, the place is completely deserted."  
"What?"  
"No lights, no Dread minions, nothing."  
"That can't be good. You should probably go in and have a look anyway, just in case."  
"Well, duh," Kat shook her head as she cautiously made her way towards the complex. Even though Rachel was her superior, it was only by two years, and the younger agent despised being told what to do. At the moment, she was connected to N'Tek through an ear piece and small microphone clipped onto the collar of her N'Tek suit. Using a portable EMP device she disarmed the security systems and used a laser identical to Rachel's to cut a hole in the chain link fence separating her from the building. Once inside the perimeter, the agent crept towards the closest window, constantly looking over her shoulder, expecting to see Psycho jump out of the bushes. The first window she looked through gave her a view of an empty hallway, three closed doors on each side. Putting her ear to the window, she could hear nothing but the beating of her own heart in her ears. She stepped back and attempted to break the window with a flying kick, but it was made out of plexi-glass, and she just bounced right off, landing on her back in the dirt. She had known she would not be able to break through. She sighed and went to look through the next window, twenty feet away.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
"No."  
"Are we there yet now?"  
"NO!"  
"How bout now?"  
"SHUT UP!"  
"Are we there yet nooooow?"  
"Damn it, Steel!"  
"Are we there yet noooooow?"  
"NO NO NO!"  
"Are we there yet now??????????"  
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN WE GET OUT OF THIS TRUCK!"  
  
Kat sighed and slumped against the wall. She had looked through sixteen windows, and had seen no signs of activity anywhere. The only things that revealed that the place had been inhabited at all were a caved- in soda machine and Max's crushed locater. "Well, what now, Rachel?"  
"What, you're asking me for advice?" the British voice replied smugly.  
"Rachel, I'm not in the mood right now. Are there any other known Dread bases? At all?"  
"No, only this one, and we weren't even sure that this one was functional."  
"That's great."  
Rachel took her hands off the keyboard and was about to get up and go ask Berto his opinion of what she should to. Then the screen in front of the console flickered. "MAX?!" Rachel was stunned, this was too easy, why was she able to contact him all the sudden?  
Max stopped in the middle of whatever he was saying and went silent, just as shocked to make contact as Rachel was. "You can hear me?" He sounded amazed.  
"The biolink just turned on all the sudden. I guess wherever you are doesn't have strong insulation against the signal."  
"That would make sense, I'm in a trunk."  
Psycho's voice interrupted all of the sudden. "Who are you talking to, what are you doing?"  
"Are we there yet?"  
"You don't fool me, Steel!" Speaking into a radio next to him, the cyborg said "I'm pulling over. I'm having some... difficulties with the cargo."  
"Figures," the voice replied coldly.  
"I could control him if I didn't have to worry about 'damaging him'!"  
"Use the EMP, you imbecile."  
"But it effects me too," Psycho whined back.  
"It gives you a little ache. Grow up, you Swiss army knife."  
Mumbling angrily, the cyborg pulled the truck to stop the car and got out.  
"Um, Rachel? I have a feeling the connections not going to be up for much longer."  
"Max, where are you?"  
"I don't know! In a truck, on a road somewhere! I can't see out the windows...aw, crap."  
Psycho had just opened the doors in back of the truck. Max tried to bolt past his captor, but Psycho was ready for him, pulling the trigger on the EMP. Max groaned and promptly lost consciousness.  
"Max! Max! Max, wake up!" her cries were met by dead silence.  
Rachel switched back to Kat's frequency.  
"Hey, where'd you go? I thought something happened."  
"Sorry, I got in contact with Max for about ten seconds."  
"Ten seconds?"  
"We were interrupted by everyone's favorite cyborg."  
"Psycho has him? That can't be good. Where is he?"  
"In a truck."  
"Well, that's specific," Kat said, rolling her eyes.  
"That's all I got out of him, he didn't know where he was either."  
"Well, he started out here. I saw his tracker inside one of the rooms, smashed of course."  
"We seem to be at a dead end."  
"Well then, you know what we have to do."  
"Kat, he needs his rest!"  
"Yeah, and Max needs his life."  
"Ok, I'll be right back," Rachel said as she got up from the chair. Halfway down the hall, she met with Dr. Yevshenko, who was pushing a smug Berto in a wheelchair. "Berto?! What are you doing?" Rachel demanded.  
"Unfortunately, our colleague here has a very good understanding of how things work. He wanted to come and help, being the most qualified in such a crisis as this. When I continuously refused to bring him, he started to hold his breath, making the alarms go off on his monitor. I kept thinking that one of my critical condition patients was dying." She glared at Berto.  
Despite this, Berto had to grin. He had gotten what he wanted. He had to help Max. Besides, who knew how many ways Rachel could screw up his console. Rachel rolled her eyes. She understood how persistent Berto could be. After all, how many Fidos had he built?  
"Thank you, I've got him now," she told Dr. Yevshenko.  
"Berto, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning for those skin grafts," the doctor said, pulling a scalpel out of her coat pocket and cheerfully waving it at the technician.  
Berto's skin turned several shades lighter as he eyed the gleaming tool in the doctor's hand before Rachel, chuckling, turned the chair around and wheeled him into the lab. Pushing the swivel chair out of the way, she positioned Berto in front of his beloved console. "Work," she commanded him.  
Berto saluted. "Yes, sir!"  
"You better watch out, or I'll get a scalpel of my own."  
"Eep!" Berto squeaked as he reached over and started typing on the keyboard and periodically flipping switches. "Do you have anything on his location yet?"  
Rachel sighed. "Well, the suspected Dread base was the real thing. Kat saw his transmitter inside, so we know Max was there at some point. Then, about three minutes ago, I made contact with him via biolink. He was in a truck, on a road somewhere. That's all he knew. Then Psycho disconnected the signal."  
Berto looked up suddenly. "With what?"  
"EMP." Rachel was surprised by the almost-happy look that came over Berto's face. "What's wrong with you? That's not a good thing! He's been zapped with EMPs at least twice in one night. Do you get how low on t-juice he must be?!"  
"Rachel, calm down and think for a second. Max is in a truck. Psycho used an EMP on him. EMPs shut down all machinery in the blast radius. Psycho's not taking the truck anywhere soon."  
  
"PSYCHO, YOU MORON!" Abigail was furious. Her grandfather had told her to meet him in no less than an hour, and though he wouldn't be angry with her, she hated to keep him waiting. At the moment, Psycho was the unfortunate target of her rage. "What the hell is the matter with you?!"  
"You're the one who told me to use the stupid thing! It's not my fault!" Psycho defended himself.  
"Let me see the EMP, Cheese-grater," Abigail said in a falsely sweet voice."  
Psycho cautiously handed it to her.  
"Ah, just as I thought...YOU PUT IT ON THE WRONG SETTING!!!"  
"What?"  
"YOU PUT THE EMP ON ITS HIGHEST SETTING, CAUSING IT TO TAKE OUT BOTH YOUR TRUCK AND MY LIMO! NOW WE HAVE TO WAIT TWENTY MINUTES FOR THE EFECT TO WEAR OFF BEFORE WE CAN EVEN THINK ABOUT CONTINUING ON!" With that, she hurled the device at the cyborg's head, hitting him in the face, which, Psycho was grateful, was not real. "Since I can see you are not competent enough to handle an EMP, use this instead," the woman tossed a shock stick to Psycho. A beeping sound came from behind both of them, and Abigail turned, surprised, to see it was coming from the metal piece attached to Max's wrist. Walking over to her adversary, she saw the reason for the beeping. The agent's supply of transphasic energy was extremely low. "Well, Microwave, maybe you won't have to use that shock stick after all. I don't think our friend will be awake for a while." She laughed and went to go wait in her limo.  
Now for answering my feedback. This is probably incredibly annoying to some, but if you don't want to read it, don't read it. Bwhaha: Thank you for explaining the origins of "Bwhahahaha." Sigh. Even in the field of realistic laughing sounds, the Japanese are ahead of us Americans. How backwards we are, still using Haha in some comic books. Sigh. Kwhaha: Yes, I think 'Kwhahahahaha' is one of the strangest laughs I've heard. I am awed in your presence. Now that Julia456 has joined us in our writing frenzy, I think life might be starting to creep back into the website! Yay! Four stories going at the same time! Can I handle the excitement? 


	9. The Hopeless Search

Ok, here's Chapter 9, and yes, it is very short. It's not exactly one of the best chapter's I've written so far, I wasn't really in a writing mood. Sorry. Anyway, here it is.  
Chapter 9  
Back at N'Tek, Berto popped open the glass case over the Bio-feedback button. He pushed the button, holding it down for three seconds, and then quickly took his hand off of it. There was no response from Max over the biolink, which was still black. Berto cursed, knowing that Max wasn't going to wake up without either switching out of Max mode or getting a recharge.  
Deciding it was the only way that there would be a chance of finding Max before Psycho got him to the second Dread base, Berto called Kat.  
"Kat, I'm sending you Hawk."  
"Ok, and what do you want me to do?"  
"I want you to fly over all the roads leading out of the Dread base. Psycho took one of them, and maybe you can find Max before they start moving him again. Look for a broken down truck," Berto sighed, realizing how hopeless this was. All they had to go on was to look for a broken-down truck on a road somewhere.  
"Martinez! There are four roads leading out of this stupid place," Kat groaned. "And guess what! Roads branch off onto other roads!"  
The younger agent understood Kat's frustration, but he did not feel like dealing with it. His legs and chest were incredibly sore.  
"Kat, just try."  
Kat heard the weariness in his voice and stopped arguing.  
"Okay, sorry. How far away is Hawk?"  
"ETA at your location is thirty seconds."  
  
Abigail sat in the back of her limo, the partition separating her from the driver raised. She had tried to call her grandfather before remembering that the EMP knocked out the phones as well. It stressed her not be able to call and say she would be late, so she poured herself a glass of Chardonnay from the mini bar to her left. She sat there, in the dim interior of the car, sipping her drink and thinking about the day's events. She supposed she had been being a bit cruel to Psycho. She began to think that she should be a little nicer to him, but then she flashed back to the punch he had thrown at her the last time they had argued. He started it, she thought petulantly. He didn't know I could defend myself and tried to hit me. He meant to hurt me. He meant to hurt me bad. Suddenly angry again, she wasn't surprised when the thin glass in her hand seemed to implode upon itself. Looking down at the shards of glass on the seat, she laughed.  
  
Kat, on the other hand, was not laughing. She had been following the roads for fifteen minutes, but she did not know how far the truck had gotten. She didn't know how far to follow each road, or for how long. She had nearly dented the floor of the aircraft for all the times she had stomped her foot down as hard as she could instead of screaming in frustration.  
"Berto, how much longer do I have?"  
"I don't know, I'd say probably five minutes, tops."  
Kat groaned and pushed Hawk to go faster.  
  
Psycho and Dread's granddaughter had been stuck on the side of the highway for twenty-two minutes exactly when the latter's phone rang. Surprised, she answered it.  
"Hello?"  
"Dear, I arrived ten minutes ago, and as I understand it I had a much longer distance to travel than you did."  
"Grandfather, it was all Psycho's fault. He used the EMP to subdue Steel, and ended up knocking out both our vehicles." There was a hint of a pout in her voice.  
"Well, seeing as your cell phone is working, I would assume that you now have power. I'll see you in a few minutes then?"  
"Of course." Hanging up the phone, the red head got out of the car and called to Psycho, who was sitting on a rock, crushing lizards with his claw. "Hey, Microwave, the EMP wore off. Back in the truck. Let's go."  
Psycho shook the lizard guts off his claw and got back behind the wheel of the truck. Abigail got back into her limo and knocked on the partition.  
"You may start driving again."  
The chauffer drove. Abigail sank back into her soft leather seat. Psycho turned on the radio. Max sat up in the back of the truck.  
  
Now for answering my reviews! Yay! Ok. Bwhaha: I haven't really thought of how old exactly the people are, I just have the order from youngest to oldest (Berto-Max-Kat-Rachel) in my head. You mentioned an official site? Do share. In one of your fanfics you wrote you said something about Max Steel tapes. Do you know if they are definitely sold in the US? I would like to get my hands on some. Yes, Max is driving Psycho crazy, but I think the dude's already lost his mind. Abigail will come up with as many names for Psycho as I can think of. I don't know if Berto has a fear of sharp objects in general, just that the scalpel was a reminder of the coming skin graft. And yes, I love the fanfiction community, especially now that things are actually happening. 


	10. Shock Stick Happiness

Ok, I (thank God) do not own Christina Aguilera, or the horrible songs she strips to. She is probably owned by the highest bidder on EBay. Ok, let's go.  
Chapter 10  
Berto was futilely pressing the Bio-feedback button, hoping that somehow it would wake Max up, even though he wasn't able to do so at the moment. Berto pounded his fist on the button, pissed off at the whole situation when he heard a whispered voice over the speakers.  
"Geez, Bro, I thought Abigail was the only one who abused the bio- feedback button."  
"MAX?!" Berto almost jumped out of his chair before realizing that he wouldn't be so happy with the results if he did. He stayed seated.  
Max winced. "Not so loud, I have one hell of a headache."  
Berto was incredulous. "Max, how are you awake?"  
"How should I know, you're the genius."  
"Well, we'll figure it out later. Right now you have to find a way to give us some clue as to where you are before you...lose contact with me again."  
"I don't know how!"  
"Can't you look out the windshield or something?"  
"I can't see the windshield. The back of the truck is a metal box. Psycho heard me through the metal before. Remember, he has better than human hearing too...the whole bionic head thing?"  
"How is he not hearing you right now then?"  
Max closed his eyes and shook his head. "Christina Aguilera."  
  
Abigail sighed in relief as the car finally reached the gates of H4, her grandfather's primary base. Known affectionately to him as his 'home away from home'. She had practically grown up here. She was happy to be back, and thankful that there were not going to be anymore unwanted interruptions in her journey. Picking up the walkie-talkie attached to the mini bar, she called Psycho.  
"Hey, Spork..." there was no answer on the other end. "Spork! Spork! SPORK! SPORK DAMMIT!"  
Finally Psycho picked up.  
"Sorry, I couldn't hear you."  
Abigail could hear snatches of background music when Psycho spoke.  
"I KNOW you are not listening to Dirty!"  
"Uh...no?" came the response, the music stopping.  
"Lawn Mower, Lawn Mower, wait until I tell Grandfather that his most- feared henchman listens to Christina Aguilera! My, my!"  
"No! Please, I'll do anything."  
She just laughed. "We'll see about that. Now, we have obviously arrived at the base. Have the shock stick IN YOUR HAND when you open the back of the truck."  
"Okay."  
Psycho picked up the weapon eagerly. He had never used one before, and was almost hoping for his captive to be awake. With the radio off, the interior of the truck was silent, except for a faint whispering sound in the back. Straining his hearing, Psycho could make out what was being said by Max through the metal. He was talking to his partners at N'Tek again!  
"STEEL!!!"  
Max jumped.  
"Um, Berto? I think Psycho heard me."  
"Damn! Ok, look, here's the plan. When he opens the door to get you, press up against the back of the truck to give yourself more time. Then I want you to look around quickly and then just tell me what you see outside. Just yell it out."  
"Sounds like a promising plan," the older agent mumbled.  
"Hey, I'm trying here! I could be in the med lab relaxing right now, but noooooooooo. I had to come and save your turbo butt."  
  
Back in the cab, Psycho decided to let Max talk to his little friends. Maybe the kid had gone insane and was just talking to himself. The picture of Max Steel in a strait-jacket in a padded room somewhere brought the cyborg great satisfaction. Anyway, what was he going to tell N'Tek that they didn't already know? He didn't know where he was. Following Abigail into a parking garage, Psycho leaped out of his truck merrily, gripping the shock stick.  
"Let me guess," Abigail said dryly, "he's awake, isn't he."  
Psycho nodded in response and all but skipped to the back of the truck.  
Abigail rolled her eyes.  
"If Jefferson Smith could see you now."  
Psycho ignored her. He threw the doors open.  
"Knock knock, Steel!"  
The garage door was still open, giving Max a view of the landscape outside. He yelled something that sounded like "alotofstreesbigrocksbighighwaycliff". Psycho decided it was a bad idea to let him continue to talk, probably to his fellow agents and reveal where he was. Psycho jumped into the truck and jabbed the shock stick into the agent's neck, holding it there for two or three seconds. Max's body jerked, and then collapsed as Psycho drew the shock stick away, looking at it happily.  
"Having a tough day, isn't he?" Abigail had walked around to the back of the truck as well.  
"Don't tell me you're feeling bad for him," Psycho said in a mocking tone.  
He received a murderous glare in returned and laughed nervously.  
"Um, I'll just carry him inside, right?"  
Abigail nodded her head and turned, walking briskly towards the building.  
I don't know if I spelled Christina Aguilera's name right, and (no offense if you're a fan of hers) I honestly don't care how you DO spell it. Come on Bwhaha and Kwhaha, keep those stories going! Also, Kwhaha, I will be responding to your reviews by emailing you at the address given on your profile. Tell me if you don't use that address anymore or something. Bwhaha, I'll be emailing you too instead of responding here. 


	11. Blame the air conditioning

Notice: UKHoneyB, who knows a lot more about Max Steel than I do, has informed me that Psycho HAS handled a shock stick before. SO, in the world of The Newcomer, he has not. He was not previously entrusted with one because John Dread was afraid that his psychotic colleague might keep his new weapon in his back pocket and end up shocking his cyborg self in the ass, to put it quite simply. Now that I've cleared up that little matter, on to Chapter 11!  
Chapter 11  
Max snapped out of his deep sleep and felt something plugged into his biolink. The portable generator! Max sighs in relief.  
"Bro, I am SO glad to be..."  
Max's voice trailed off as he noticed that he was not back at N'Tek. In fact he was in another cell, almost identical to the other one. He stared at the generator, puzzled. It wasn't the one Berto had built. Instead of the trademark thumbs up logo, there was a black D against a red background.  
"Awake, are we?"  
  
Kat flew slowly over the gray snake below her that was the highway. Every time she got to a wooded section, she would dip down lower for a closer look, searching for "bigrocks" as Max had called them. Luckily, there were only two major highways in the area. This one was the first she was following, and there was a fifty percent chance that she had chosen correctly. She felt lucky. Seeing another cluster of trees below her, she decreased her altitude and searched the surrounding area. She didn't actually expect to see anything telltale. This was about the fourth time she had gone to a wooded area for a closer look so far, and she was beginning to get frustrated again. She was about to bang her fist down on the very delicate control panel when she remembered her online anger management course. The course wasn't very helpful, but she had met someone there who went by the alias of UKHoneyB who was a lot like her. Kat's online friend had taught her another way to deal with stress.  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!"  
Kat let out a long evil laugh that UKHoneyB had insisted worked better than breaking things. Kat let out a sigh of relief. She did feel better. She looked over to the control panel where she saw Berto's half shocked, half worried face looking back at her.  
"Um, Kat? Are you okay? I think you might need a vacation after this whole thing is over."  
Kat grinned. "Sorry, Martinez. I forgot you were there."  
"So you usually just break out into peals of "Bwhaha" when you're alone?" he asked skeptically.  
"Maybe, I..." her voice drifted off as she gazed out the window; something had caught her eye.  
"Kat? What's wrong?"  
  
"I FOUND IT!"  
"What?! Are you sure?!"  
"There's a forest nearby, two boulders on the grass, and a cliff! Exactly what Steel said! The base is a big white square. It looks like it only has one floor, but most of it's probably underground."  
"Ok, I've got your coordinates. I'll send in Rachel and Jake, but they won't be there for another five minutes. Until then, you're on your own."  
"Just how I like it."  
  
Max sat up in his cell. He was sitting on the floor, the generator still hooked up to him. John Dread was on the other side of the bars, about six feet away.  
"What, no Smiley?"  
Dread sighed. "Psycho is currently being instructed on the correct way to use a shock stick. He seems to have been a bit overenthusiastic with it. You've been out for quite some time, Mr. Steel."  
"I always have enjoyed sleeping in. Why am I here?"  
"You mean as opposed to being dissected? Well, I figured we'd have a little chat first. A little question and answer."  
"Why?" Max asked cautiously.  
"Well, I thought we could make a little trade. You tell me what I want to know about N'Tek, and I'll let you free."  
Max rolled his eyes. He knew that was going to happen any time soon. Gesturing towards the portable generator, he said "Looks like you already know a lot about N'Tek if you could duplicate the technology."  
"Mairot served his purposes. He gave us an abundance of useful information, including the electronic blueprints of certain devices. However, he is gone now, and much of what he was given us is quite outdated."  
"My sympathy," Max answered sarcastically.  
  
Kat crept towards the building, holding a small EMP the size of a lighter that she had threatened Max with many times when he had pissed her off. At the moment, however, it wasn't for Max, but for the security cameras that conveniently were shut down until she was safely passed them. Not carrying any real weapon, she was carrying a two liter bottle filled with gasoline and a book of matches, both of which had been obtained from a nearby gas station. The agent had a strong feeling that the owner of the gas station had called the cops right after she had left.  
Kat made her way to the entrance to the ventilation system. The entrance was usually guarded by crisscrossing lasers, but they too had been disabled with the help of her trusty EMP. She found herself in the desired location; an air conditioning duct. She crawled through the vents slowly, not wanting to make a sound. She knew exactly where she was going. Though she hadn't known the location of the building, she did know the layout, because she knew that Dread built all his bases alike. It was easier for everyone. Including his enemies, she thought with a smirk.  
As she slowly made her way towards the room she knew to be Dread's office, she heard snatches of conversations from the rooms below her.  
"No, you stupid microwave, you're not supposed to hold that end. You'll end up shocking yourself when you turn the blasted thing on!"  
Kat stopped for a second, vaguely recognizing the voice, and wondering why whoever it was happened to be talking to a microwave. She shook her head and kept going. About five minutes later she heard two more people talking.  
"Can I ask you another question?"  
"Of course, Akili-chan, why wouldn't I let you ask me a question?"  
"Well, I thought all my questions might start to get annoying."  
"No, I told you already, I love questions! Ask away!"  
"Oh, okay then."  
Kat didn't stop this time. She couldn't stop and listen to every conversation she heard along the way. Even when, ten minutes later, she heard a semi-familiar sound.  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!"  
"Will somebody stop her already?"  
"We can't, we're her assistants, remember?"  
"Well, what are we supposed to be helping her with?"  
"She's trying to build a new arm for Psycho."  
"Oh."  
Kat wondered if the laugh could possibly be from...no. She shook her head and told herself to just concentrate on the mission. In another two minutes, she reached the room she was looking for. Dread's office. The cover to the ventilation system was screwed tightly on, and to kick it off would make too much noise and alert the guards of her presence. That was what the gasoline and matches were for. She unscrewed the bottle and dumped its contents down through the vent. It landed in an enormous puddle in the middle of the office. That part was easy, but it took her five attempts to get a lighted match through the vent without it being snuffed out. She was just glad that the ventilation system wasn't actually being used at the moment.  
  
Dread balled his fists in frustration. The fire alarm was going off. If one of the imbeciles in the lab has set fire to something on their break again, I will personally cut off their heads and hang them in my office! Things were routinely being set on fire in an evil science lab, so the building was no longer evacuated when the fire alarm went off. The base was so big that people usually just exited the effected area and were safe. However, the alarm was INCERDIBLY annoying. Glancing back at Max, he smiled. At least some good was coming out of the situation. Max covered his ears as best he could, but his face was still twisted in pain. His head hurt as it was already, and his ultra sensitive haring didn't exactly come in handy when there was an alarm going off.  
"Well, Mr. Steel, I see that you're probably not going to be in any condition to talk for a while, so I think I'll just send Psycho back here to watch you while I see what is going on."  
"Oh joy," came the strained reply.  
Dread laughed. "See you soon."  
He picked up the phone and dialed a four-digit number. "Psycho, you're reassigned to guard duty. Come down here now."  
Max could almost hear the anger in Psycho's voice. They would be in the same situation before, but Max doubted he would get hold of Psycho's boot again. Too bad.  
In the time it had taken Psycho to arrive, the alarm had gone off. Most of the DREDD employees, John Dread, Abigail, and the guards included had gone to see what was wrong. Psycho and Max were the only once in the immediate area.  
Max was feeling much better now that the alarm had stopped going off, although his head still throbbed. "Hello, Smiley!" he chirped.  
"You better not be annoying this time, Steel," the cyborg threatened.  
"Why not?"  
"Because I have...DAMN IT! I LEFT IT BACK WITH THE REDHEAD!" Psycho raged around the room kicking at the wall, but he had to stop when he actually put his foot through the plaster.  
Max, seeing Psycho's rage took a deep breath. "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer..."  
Psycho spun around. "DON'T YOU DARE!"  
  
It was much easier for Kat to find Max than it was for her to find Dread's office, and that was pretty simple in itself. All she had to do was follow the sounds of Psycho's voice. He sounded very angry. She just hoped he wasn't armed. She did NOT like to deal with disgruntled cyborgs with firearms. As she got closer to her destination, according to Psycho's voice, she heard another voice and found out what had the cyborg so enraged.  
"Seventy-two bottle of beer on the wall, seventy-two bottles of beer..."  
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF YOUR NECK AND THEN YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SING ANYMORE! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?!"  
"You take one down and pass it around, seventy-one bottles of beer on the wall!"  
Kat laughed, and the sound echoed in the small space. Luckily, psycho was still raging, and his voice drowned out hers. Reaching the grate, she looked down and saw she was directly above Max. Realizing she would have to move quickly, she yelled "STEEL! MOVE!"  
Max automatically dove to the right just as Kat kicked the metal grate as hard as she could. It fell to the floor with a clatter. She thrust her arms through the opening. "JUMP!"  
Max, actually listening to orders for once, jumped, grabbed her arms, and with Kat's help managed to pull himself into the duct.  
"Follow me!"  
Kat crawled as quickly away from the room as she could, going towards the nearest exit. Even then, the two heard Psycho curse and metal against metal as he flipped the switch that got rid of the bars to the cell. The cyborg jumped up, and got his claw into the hole where the grate used to be.  
"KAT! HURRY UP!"  
Kat, although already moving quickly, sped up even more. Max delivered a sharp kick to the bionic claw, which skittered against the smooth metal of the duct. Losing his grip, Psycho fell back to the floor, and at the same time realized that he wouldn't have been able to fit through the grate anyway. Max had almost gotten stuck in the opening.  
"DAMN YOU STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"  
The cyborg's voice faded as the two N'Tek agents moved further away from the room. 


	12. Epilogue!

Epilogue  
"Well, another attempt failed. I can't say I wasn't expecting it."  
"It wasn't my fault!"  
"Of course not, my dear. I never said the blame was yours. You carried out your assignments flawlessly. However, our metallic colleague has done a less than satisfactory job."  
"He should be punished."  
"He has been."  
"How?"  
"He has been placed in the same cell our friend occupied. In fact, our friend still does occupy it...in hologram form."  
"I don't see how that's a fitting punishment."  
"The hologram has the exact image and voice of our friend. This hologram will sing his dreadful song about alcoholic beverages on walls for sixteen hours straight."  
"Perfect."  
"I thought so. Now, we should probably move on to our next attempt. You will not need to leave me for so long this time, as N'Tek is already aware of your identity. You will not have to lie as to which side you are on."  
"Thank God for that. You have no idea how difficult it was to act all good for so long."  
"No, I don't, and I never expect to have to do so. I am not as strong as you, my dear, and don't think I would survive such an ordeal."  
At this they both laughed.  
"Now, Max Steel is not aware of this, but he will be joining us soon."  
"Explain please."  
"The transphasik generator we created not only transferred energy into our opponent, but also the new and improved DREAD probes."  
"I thought the DREAD probes were supposed to kill him. How would that make him join our side?"  
"Because the function of these DREAD probes have been altered. The only part of Mr. Steel they will affect is his mind."  
"I don't believe that's fully functional as it is."  
"You wouldn't think so, but through experience I can tell you that Mr. Steel is smarter than he lets on."  
"That's a relief."  
"Quite."  
"Now, what exactly will the new DREAD probes do to his mind?"  
"They will...give him a new way of thinking. They will show him that perhaps his rigid sense of right and wrong isn't the only way to look at it."  
"I see. Shall I have a room prepared for him?"  
"Go ahead. He should be along very shortly."  
"And Psycho?"  
"He still has six hours to go. His newfound hatred of Mr. Steel should be very interesting once Steel arrives here. I have a feeling we may be able to watch some pretty interesting sparring matches."  
  
Yeah, it is VERY short, but it's an epilogue, what do you expect? Wow, I can't believe that I am actually done with my first fanfic! Woohoo! This was a long one. Ciao! 


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